Delta Squad - Black (Delta Squad Book 6)

Book summary

Delta Squad is thrust into a new battle, trapped in a world controlled by the Syndicate while a time-devouring creature, the Chronovore, lurks in the shadows. Freed by a mysterious group, the squad must fight both the Syndicate and the relentless Chronovore as time itself unravels around them.

Excerpt from Delta Squad - Black (Delta Squad Book 6)

Chapter 1

The footsteps were the first sound he heard that didn’t originate from inside his own head. His senses were still sharp, but the darkness and time had made him question everything. All the things he’d seen before coming here, the dark was a blessing he had trouble accepting. It was better than the reality he’d come from.

Still, the footsteps only got louder, and on instinct, he tensed up. There was no reason to escape. The insanity was out there. The devil, all the cosmic things. The end of the world was out there, and it was safe in here in the dark.

Then his cell door opened. He could feel the pressure and temperature change on his torn skin. It wasn’t time for the torturing bastards to come back. There were still at least thirty minutes unless they changed their schedule.

“I heard you were having a bit of a bad couple of years?” a voice asked. Cody didn’t know who it was. He tried to place it, but there was nothing. “They took your eyes. I guess you would have reacted to the light when I turned it on,” the man said, doing his best to ignore the blood-coated walls and horrendous odor of rotting flesh in the room. The man chained here in the center of the room looked more like a corpse than a man.

Cody felt a callused hand reach under his neck and lift his head up for a second. Cody tried to speak, but without a tongue, nothing came out but blood. The man recoiled before the blood could hit his skin, and Cody’s head fell back down.

“They have beaten you worse than I thought. Well, just listen for a few minutes. Not like you have much else to do,” the man said, his voice still alien to Cody.

“Incredible, really. Did you know you were meant to be the last ones? That’s right. You and your idiot friends were supposed to go to war with 188 and die,” the man said, and Cody’s pain faded. He would have looked at the man had he still had his eyes and the strength to do it. He changed his breathing enough, however.

“That got your attention, good.” The man read Cody as if he were a book. The change in breathing told him everything he needed to know. “You won. You managed to do the unthinkable. Imagine our surprise when you pulled that trick. It was as impressive as it was inconvenient,” he said.

Cody wasn’t sure what this was all about, but he knew whoever this was, wasn’t his friend. He wasn’t sure if he had any friends left still alive. He didn’t understand why he was still alive. Maybe just to suffer. It was almost time for the torturers to come back. He could feel his healing kick in. The soft tissues always healed the fastest.

“Not only did you win. You just wouldn’t stop. You took down every threat, new and from the past. Beyond the imagination even, and somehow, you just didn’t fall. You gave everything you had—” Finally, the beaten one spoke.

“And it wasn’t enough.” Cody’s words were racked with pain and almost weren’t words at all.

The next thing he felt was a punch across the face that knocked him to the side, but the chains holding his wrists moved him back into the center. The pain faded in a few seconds.

“What, are you going to cry now? You helped save the Omniverse from the worst threat it has ever known and saved untold amounts of lives and your world as well, and you are crying over a few lost lives who knew the price from the beginning. Who died in service to their country, their beliefs, and you are broken up about it? Do you think they would be this broken up? Do you think they shut down when the whole team was supposedly vaporized?” Cody thought about this. The man was right, but he was getting mixed signals.

“Of course not. There’s no damn crying,” the man said, and Cody grit his teeth. “Delta Squad don’t know how to cry, we never figured it out,” Cody said, his words better now, vision starting to return. His eyes burned as if sand were filling the sockets, and he closed them tight. “What do you want?”

“Death is a part of the business, kid. You’ve been in this dark hole for six months, and the world is a miserable place now that the Syndicate has power over everything. Your team needs you.”

Cody shook his head. “Is this a new torture? I know everyone is dead. We’ve lost. I’ve lost everyone,” he replied. “That sounds a lot like crying to me, stop it,” the man said, and Cody couldn’t help it. He was sure everyone had died, but when did he start thinking that? Nothing made sense.

“What are you talking about? Who died? The world still needs you. The Syndicate is waging war on the whole world. No one can stop them. Millions are going to die for their utopia. Don’t you understand? The Syndicate is the enemy. It always has been,” the man said. Cody opened his eyes. They burned and itched, but even that was fading away.

He could see the man for the first time. He was an older white man, with gray hair and an equally gray mustache. He didn’t look impressive, but at the same time, there was something off about him, too. He had on a faded blue uniform, no name tag, and held his broom in his left hand.

“I know you, don’t I? You’re the janitor at Blackfire. What in the hell are you doing here?” Cody asked and knew at once he was losing his mind. This wasn’t possible. The man did not fade away as he stared. Again, nothing made sense. He felt as if a crucial piece of information was missing somewhere.

“Yeah. I’m real. With this job, they don’t pay attention to me. I called in a favor from some friends of mine. Time is running out. Want out of this hole or not?” he asked, getting to the point. Cody didn’t want to stay here anymore. Still, this could have been some elaborate trick. Something to make him talk, make him hope again just for the bastards to crush him again at the last moment. He would not put it past his captors. Still, there was a chance this was real.

“Fine, let’s get out of here,” he replied and pulled against his chains. Something was draining his energy. He had felt this way since he had been shackled here. “I don’t imagine you brought a key or something?” Cody asked.

The man smirked and lifted his broom. It seemed like a normal one, wooden handle and all, but with one quick swing, the handle sliced through the chains. The links fell to the ground. “Stand up, Commander. Like I said, the real battle is about to begin,” he said. Cody took a deep breath and stood up. His muscles screamed as he forced his body to rise.

“How come every battle that is coming up is the real one? Were the others just practice?” Cody asked. The man just shrugged. “Hell if I know. It’s just a saying. Before you do anything, you need a shower. Do you smell you? My god, man, it’s enough to choke a maggot,” he said. “I’m aware,” Cody replied.

The two of them moved towards the steel door. The man looked out both ways. “Come on, let’s go,” he said, and they walked out. Cody did his best to ignore the pain while the rest of his wounds attempted to heal.

Chapter 2

“What do you think of this life? It’s everything you deserve. It’s more than everything you deserve. It’s paradise, and it’s ours,” she said to Blake as the two of them sat on the porch. Blake still had no idea how he ended up here. One minute he was in a chaotic nightmare, the next, wherever here was. A white mansion next to the beach. Everything was perfect. The weather, the drink, the chair he was in. Perfection. Six months of perfection, it was starting to get old.

For all he knew, she whipped this scenario up in just a couple of seconds. It might not even have been Earth at all. He pushed all that stuff out of his mind.

“It’s great, still I can’t help but feel that I was stolen away from everyone when I could be trying to make things right again,” he replied with a smile. She glared, it was a little scary, and Blake knew how close to oblivion he was.

Her eyes softened along with the rest of her.

“Oh, you know I like it when you complain about worldly situations, but your blue toy soldier leader sealed off the world from dear old Dad. You know what? He can’t get in. I can’t get out. You’re stuck with me, at least for now,” she said and looked back at the ocean. Blake shook his head and laughed.

“How long is it going to be before they find us? What about the Chronovore? Emily isn’t herself lately. I’m pretty sure she’s near indestructible. Something the guys and I specialize in dealing with. I wonder how they are doing. As amazing as you are, I do miss the fight. I think I always will. I might have an addiction,” he said, half not thinking about what was coming out of his mouth.

“You miss the fight? Well, you can always fight with me.”

Blake’s eyes shifted in her direction just in time to see her fist come at his head. He got out of the way, making sure not to spill his drink in the process.

“No, I don’t want to fight you, really. I’m totally not missing the fight that much, I promise,” he tried to tell her, but it was pointless now. She swung with her right fist, it was slow. He dodged the attack, stood up, and grabbed her by the neck, for all the good it did. Her flesh was iron in his grip. He wasn’t sure if he could move it at all, even if he wanted to. There was never any reason to hold back.

“Aww, look at you. Getting all aggressive, I like it!”

Nero snapped her fingers, and a shockwave sent Blake flying from the porch, over the shore, and ten feet into the ocean. He hit the surface of the water and thought for sure he felt something inside snap, but there was never any pain in this place. Sometimes he was sure that this was the afterlife.

Blake flipped over to his back and opened his eyes. She was standing over him, studying him. “You know this is entirely unfair,” he said, and she laughed. “Sorry, I got carried away, but don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll happen again,” she replied. Blake tried to smile.

“Well, you really are dying here, aren’t you? Dad was right about people all along. You can give them everything you think they want, and they’ll wither and die without the challenge. Humanity was created with violence in blood. Go home. I’ll wait for you to complete whatever it is you feel you need to do,” she said.

“It’s not about the challenge. It’s knowing people are out there dying, suffering, and I can stop it. I can try. It’s about doing the right thing if you can do the right thing,” Blake replied.

“Then go be my hero and go do the right thing,” Nero said.

She knelt, put her hand on his chest. “Thank you.” It was the last thing he was able to say before everything went white.

His vision returned just as fast. It was night. He was alone in a dark alley. The thing that let him know the last six months were real was the fading scent of the sea.